Writing a book can be easy. You’ve researched your topic, had the story edited, ask friends and family to read it, and are all set. Then the hard part comes, getting published. It’s scary to send a book that you’ve slaved over, poured your heart into, and really love, to a publicist. The rejection rate for new authors is quite high and nobody enjoys rejection. There is another route open to authors. Think about self-publishing.

If you Google “self-publishing a book”, you’ll find so many sites it will boggle the mind. Picking a legitimate one is another matter. It’s best to check the company out with the Better Business Bureau and ask for reference if they are new. Get as much information as you can before doing business with a company.

One good choice for self-publishing is lulu.com. It costs you nothing to publish your book with lulu. You put the book together into .pdf format and upload it to their site. They will put it together after a customer orders the book and ship it to them. Lulu works by taking a commission on every sale. This is a very cost effective way of self-publishing.

Another way to self-publish is by sending your manuscript to a company and having them put it together into book form. They will give you a price for a certain number of books and you then try to sell them yourself to bookstores and retailers. This option can be quite expensive if you want to get a decent amount of books.

Whichever route you take involves work. You have to promote yourself and the book extensively. It is an option if you are just starting out and want to get the book out to the public quickly. It really is just a matter of weighing all the options and seeing if you think self-publishing is for you.

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 3:00 am.